Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has measured the success of Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy with the way Australian legends are lauding him during interviews and commentary after India won the second Test by eight wickets.
In the absence of Virat Kohli, the stand-in captain Rahane guided India to a strong comeback in the second Test after a crippling defeat in the first Test.
Ajinkya Rahane was appreciated for astute field placements and bowling changes to win for the fourth time at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, most for India at a single away venue. Apart from captaincy, the right-hand batsman put the team in a strong position with his bat, scoring his 12th century while the second in MCG.
Sunil Gavaskar, who is also commentating for Fox Cricket, admitted it was “heartening” to see some of the greats of the game praising Rahane’s leadership.
“You had to be around the Australian commentary boxes to understand the kind of admiration that was there for the way he [Ajinkya Rahane] led the team amongst some of the Australian legends who were at the commentary box.
“So that was such a heartening thing to see that he was being praised for his leadership by these guys, someone like Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Mike Hussey, Shane Warne, they had nothing but praise for Rahane’s captaincy,” Gavaskar, who scored 10,122 runs in 125 Tests, told India Today.
India is not a team which will lie down and allow you to walk all over: Sunil Gavaskar
After the debilitating defeat in the first Test, registering the lowest Test total (36), many former cricketers predicted that Australia will clean sweep India. However, the visitors turned the table with the all-around efforts of players. Sunil Gavaskar is happy that India has strongly answered all the predictors.
“Some of the former Australian cricketers were speaking about a 4-0 win, that India will be blown over etc etc. Now you know what it is. This is not a team which will lie down and allow you to walk all over them. So it augurs well for the Indian team.
After playing the second Test, India and Australia will move to play the much-awaited third Test in Sydney.